John Mackintosh

Who was John Mackintosh?

John Pitcairn Mackintosh was a Scottish Labour Party politician known for his advocacy of devolution, at a time when it was anathema to the Labour leadership, and for his pro-Europeanism. He advanced the concept of dual nationality: that Scots could be both Scottish and British, and indeed European.

Mackintosh was born in Simla, India, and brought up in Edinburgh. He was educated at Melville College, the University of Edinburgh, Balliol College, Oxford and Princeton University. He was senior lecturer in government at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria 1961-63, and became Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde.

Mackintosh contested Edinburgh Pentlands in 1959 and Berwick and East Lothian in 1964. He was elected Member of Parliament for Berwick and East Lothian in 1966. In the February 1974 general election against the national trend, he lost his seat to the Conservative Michael Ancram, but regained it in the October 1974 election.

Later in his life Mackintosh became Chair and Professor of Politics at the University of Edinburgh, where he managed to balance his duties in the House of Commons with teaching students, a role he enjoyed.